Carina Schneider UCL / Clémentine Cottineau CNRS
Regional Studies Association Winter Conference 2018
From Decentralisation to Divergence?
A Review of the Economic Strategies of Six English City Regions
Context
Decentralisation and devolution of the political agenda in England
Cities recognised as “engines of growth”
Opportunity seized differently by English city regions
> Inequality of resources, political capital, demand for devolution
Potential for further inequality (North-South divide?)
> due to negotiations “a la carte” and inequality of opportunity seizing
(Cheshire et al., 2014)
Regional science theory on local growth
> sectoral specialisation and productivity
> transportation and accessibility
> skills matching and human capital formation
→ Core of the Industrial Strategy Green Paper and White Paper,
with a particular focus on ‘balancing’ this growth more equitably.
Why Devolve?
Bringing decision-making closer to territorial impacts and needs
Increase political and economic accountability
Harness local knowledge of problems and resources
(Foster competition between regions and/or cities)
When not to devolve?
When devolution of means does no follow devolution of power
When the territorial layer of decision adds to preexisting layers
> losing sight of fragmented sets of separate policies (O’Brien, Pike,
2016)
When limits of devolved authorities do not match economic reality
How to Devolve?
> Match policy typology with appropriate spatial tiers
> to match the extent of economic phenomena (Oates, 1999)
Source: NAO publication 2016
Sheffield City RegionGMCA
Liverpool City Region
WMCA
West of England
Yorkshire
Cambridgeshire & Peterborough
Cornwall
Tees
Valley
North of Tyne
Source: devoconnect.co.uk, 2017
Greater London
How to Devolve?
> Match policy typology with appropriate spatial tiers
> to match the extent of economic phenomena (Oates, 1999)
Spatial correspondence between combined authorities (pink),
built-up areas (orange) and travel-to-work areas (green).
How to Devolve?
> Match policy typology with appropriate spatial tiers
> to match the extent of economic phenomena (Oates, 1999)
Distribution of the share of manufacturing jobs (blue), unemployed active
residents (orange) and higher qualification residents (green, Level 4 +).
How to Devolve?
> Match policy typology with appropriate spatial tiers
> to match the extent of economic phenomena (Oates, 1999)
Research Design
Beyond the apparent lack of policy coordination and spatial
correspondence, can we identify the main socioeconomic
incentives of devolution in the strategic planning documents
of on-going English devolved authorities?
• Specialisation/diversification of economic/industrial sectors
• Positioning on existing and future transportation routes
• Discussion of required skills and how to provide for them and the
labour force in the local economy
Data & Methods
Strategic Economic Plans (SEP) of combined authorities circa 2016
• West Midlands
• West Yorkshire / Leeds city region
• Greater Manchester
1. Textual mining analysis with ‘tm’ package of R
2. Qualitative analysis of discourse
• Regarding industrial
specialisation, transportation and
skills
• Highlighting disconnections and
clashing objectives between
strategies
• Liverpool City region
• Tees Valley
• Sheffield City Region
Fairclough, 1992
Scaled frequency of
the 10 most over-
represented terms in
each document. Only
the ten most frequent
words are reported
for each document,
although two
documents can have
the same terms in
their top10. We use
scaled frequency to
compare the
frequency of terms
relative to the
average and
dispersion of
frequencies of each
document. *Terms
have been reduced to
their root form.
Text mining: distribution of most frequent roots
Terms interactions in all documents
Qualitative review
Fairclough, 1992
Explore the texts qualitatively for their
discursive context: (i.e. 1. core text, 2. the
discursive practices, and 3. the socio-cultural
practices the production of the texts is embedded
in ~ cf. Fairclough, 1992; Foucault, 1972)
• looking at the wider context of their production,
• their structure,
• their overall narrative and patterns / themes
What emerged
• A business plan / bidding focus based on the
set up / power distribution from central to local
government
• not high-level, strong focus on projection,
evaluation and measurement
• structure was centered on three main
development mechanisms and sectors
• strong narrative on growth
Texts can be read as embedded into
“practices [that] systematically form the
objects of which they speak” (Foucault,
1972)
West Midlands CA: Making our mark
1. New manufacturing economy
2. Creative and digital
3. Environmental technologies
4. Medical and life sciences
5. HS2 growth
6. Skills for growth and employment for all
7. Housing
8. Exploiting the economic geography
analysis &
resources sector mission
Transport & connectivity
Demographics & skills
Economic development & sectors
“The UK Central growth corridor – linking Birmingham, Solihull and Coventry - is already playing a part in delivering success and HS2 will further transform connectivity in Britain with the potential to underpin the re-balancing of the British economy. It will transform connectivity advantages, provide significant supply chain opportunities for leading engineering and construction businesses and provide a focus in driving up skill levels.”
“Identification of Skills Investment Zones for targeted activity to raise skills and work with unemployed people and those whose skills don’t match demand. Action required at a combined authority/three LEP, individual LEP/local authority and community level.”
“A programme to ensure that West Midlands’ businesses source their finance and business services locally, building on Birmingham’s position as the UK’s leading centre for financial services outside London and the potential contribution of Coventry and Wolverhampton. A programme to support existing drivers of growth in the more dynamic parts of the wider conurbation and enable other areas to become net economic contributors.”
Tees Valley CA: Strategic Economic Plan
1. Support Innovation & Sector Development
1. Our Key Sectors
2. Innovation
3. Low Carbon
4. Business Growth
2. Develop the Workforce
3. Develop and Provide Infrastructure
1. Connectivity
2. Enabling Infrastructure
3. Attract and Retain Wealth
analysis &
resourcessector mission
Transport & connectivity
Demographics & skills
Economic development & sectors
“Connectivity is the life-blood of our economy and critical to our ability to trade effectively and transport people to jobs. The vision for the Tees Valley is for an infrastructure and transport network that supports and underpins the key growth sectors in the economy, with capacity to ensure future growth will not be constrained.”
“Without a skilled, productive and flexible workforce, Tees Valley will struggle to meet the challenges ahead. We have an excellent foundation to build on, with leading universities, colleges and knowledge centres in a part of the world renowned for its process, chemical and advanced manufacturing skills. Yet our workforce is ageing, youth unemployment is high and our achievement rates are lagging behind.”
The Tees Valley has significant expertise and competitive advantages in advanced manufacturing, process industries, the low-carbon economy and the digital/creative industries. This has been demonstrated through strong growth in recent years which needs to be harnessed. Our major firms need to be retained, indigenous businesses developed, foreign direct investment encouraged, carbon emissions reduced, low carbon technology deployed and digital enablement maximised.
Liverpool City Region: Building our future
1. Productivity
• Enterprise
• Growth sectors
2. People
• Improving our Skills and Talent
3. Place
• Improving our Physical Digital Connectivity
• Place Making in our City Region
analysis &
resources
Transport & connectivity
Demographics & skills
Economic development & sectors
The third pillar is to improve our transport, energy and digital infrastructures, and protect and enhance our cultural and environmental assets. This will improve quality of life for residents and attract and retain investors, skilled workers and visitors who will contribute togrowth.
The skills strategy will be bold and will reference international exemplars and innovation to ensure that not only will the right talent be developed in the City Region, but that we will also attract talent from across the world. The skills strategy will ensure that the City Region is able to deliver outstanding skills to both underpin growth in the priority sectors and to fulfill replacement demand.
The first pillar to sustained economic growth is to maximise the potential of our sector strengths and related assets and to focus on starting and growing more successful businesses by promoting innovations and entrepreneurial activity.
sector mission
SEP comparison
• Most common sectors: Advanced Manufacturing, Creative & Digital,
Environment / Low Carbon
• Shift from RDA Analysis (cf Robson, Peck & Holden, 2000): – sectors with frequent mentions in 2000 have disappeared altogether or as a distinct category (IT and
Communications, Automotive, Food, Electronics, Agriculture, Textiles), while others have appeared
(Advanced Manufacturing, Digital & Creative), or gained in prominence (Medical and life sciences, low
carbon)
– reflects industrial structural change to a certain extent as well as an emphasis on high-return sectors with
growth potential of the KIBS category, or an upgrading of traditional sectors to KIBS status
(i.e.manufacturing to advanced manufacturing, UKCES 2015)
– suggests a failure to address the foundational economy (food supply, energy distribution,
telecommunications, transport, health, housing, education, personal and social services) which is at the core
of many smaller, non-urbanised areas across the UK. (Bowman et al, 2016)
• Great disparity in data analysis resources & skills to support SEPs, crucial
for ‘self-sufficiency’ from 2020
• Narratives dominant in ‘growth’ and ‘productivity’ focus, only one particular
about social inclusion, or ‘inclusive growth’ (social focus as a means to
economic growth)
• What is missing?
– Pan-regional, intra-regional, place-based, social inclusion, pan-sectoral
Challenges: clashing objectives in short term
Cities inter-dependent (trade, migration, fiscal redistribution).
> They can’t all attract talented people, investment
"developing existing talent and attracting new talent" (Liverpool City Region, 2016, p.5).
"attracting talent […] skilled people, better jobs” (Leeds City Region, 2016, p.9)
West Midlands strategy seeks to attract high-income earners and skilled workers using an
"accelerating housing market [with] a sustainable mix of homes for sale and rent" (WMCA, 2016, p.6)
In the Tees Valley, the target population is not only skilled workers but business leaders.
In Manchester, the way to go for attracting talent and entrepreneurs seems to be "safe, sustainable
and healthy places” as well as a "global brand" (Manchester, 2013, p.39)
“There is some evidence from reports comparing performance of second-tier cities that Newcastle
and the North East LEP area provides career escalators which can attract and retain labour, in
particular for incoming migrants. However the North East economy is not as powerful as London and
the South East, and other comparator cities” (North East, 2016, p. 21)
> They depend on other scales (region, State, etc.) for
coordination, rebalancing and accountability
Conclusion
Advantages of devolution identified by English devolved cities
> promote local issues in a bottom-up approach
> account for local difference in employment, housing, ed and care
situation
But:
• Short-sighted strategies disconnected from other scales
• Risk that sectoral lock-ins could multiply in long term
• Potential (unequal) competition for skills and transport hubs
> Work on cooperation/coordination between local economies and
across regions
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